Mistakes
by Avid fangirl for life
Summary: Regina makes a huge mistake, and she can feel the fallout beginning to happen. When a strange girl appears in her home, she doesn't know what to make of it.
1. Chapter 1

Regina sighed softly as she closed the door behind her with a soft click. Disappointment sat heavily upon her shoulders, defeat was evident in her face. She had been so sure that he was the one, that he was her final chance of happiness, the chance for a happy ending that she was now never going to have.

There had been a split second before he planted his lips on hers in which she had felt a glimmer of uncertainty, but she had just put that down to nerves. Stupidly, she had convinced herself that she was in love with Robin ahold, which of course, she now knew she wasn't. Desperately, she had wanted it to be true, she had wished it to come to life, to sit in her heart and crash through her veins. She had tried to will herself into loving Robin because the pixie dust had convinced her to.

It was all in vain, all she had ever has to go on was a dragon tattoo and some sparkly dust. There had never been a gut feeling, there had never been anything instinctual that told her it was right. Yet she had gone for it anyway. She had hoped it was right, because Robin was a good man and they were both a little bit broken from the loss of their past loves. She had known he hadn't felt it either, no matter how hard he had tried to push himself to. But now she was stuck feeling incredibly stupid because she had tried to force a feeling that can not be forced. How could she have been so foolish?

Regina let her head hit the door with a soft thunk, as her body slid down to the floor. It was such an incredibly stupid thing of her to do. Somehow, as soon as their lips had touched she had known, or rather felt that she was kissing the wrong person. She wasn't sure whom she was supposed to have been kissing, but it certainly hadn't felt right. There had been something gut wrenching about that feeling, it felt desperate and it felt so wrong. It was almost as if her body had been pleading with her, trying to tell her that the person she was sharing the kiss with had been wrong. She had an awful feeling that she had some how changed something important, and now she was stuck with the feeling that she needed to set it right. What it was exactly, she wasn't sure but she knew she had to do something about it. She didn't know what she had done wrong, but it felt strangely altering, she knew it was the beginning of a huge mistake but she hoped that she still had time to put it right before any lasting damage was gone. First, she had to figure out what had been so wrong, she would start immediately.

That is, after she had gotten over her loss of dignity for doing something so utterly stupid. Sighing once again, she decided to resolve the matter in the morning, after she had had some time to nurse her wounded pride, and she made to stand and head towards her study. She needed a tumbler or two of her home made cider, just to take the edge off of the events of the evening and to calm her nerves. She hoped it would be able to mute the awful, stomach clenching feeling she had about the terrible mistake she had made earlier on.

She had just reached the stairs at the top of the entry way when she heard an almighty crash, followed by some rather choice curse words. The words, being rather crass, reminded her of one Miss Emma Swan, sheriff of her once cursed town. The thought brought a smirk to her face, but she knew from the voice that it couldn't be Emma. The voice had a deeper, smoother quality to it than Emma's did. That meant an intruder was in her home. Tensing up, she turned slowly in her heels as her hand came up to create a fireball. A brilliant stream of lilac coloured magic was emerging from a young girl, sixteen at most, as she stood just inside of the front door.

Without warning, her magic cut off and she fell to her knees, gasping desperately for breath. Slowly, she staggered to her feet, swaying slightly and extremely pale, but determined none the less. The girl, Regina notes, is tiny, barely passed the five foot mark, and she is built in a rather delicate and willowy way. Her hair is dark, and her skin is olive toned but her eyes, it is her eyes that captivate Regina's attention. She finds herself looking into the eyes of Emma Swan.

The girl is looking at her, glaring at her, pointedly, as if to say that she does not appreciate having a fireball aimed in her general direction. It steals Regina's breath away because she is being glared at by a girl with Emma Swan's eyes but it is not Emma Swan's less than convincing glare looking back at her. No, it's Regina's.


	2. Chapter 2

Oh gods, Regina thinks, am I going crazy? She figures she must be because she's wide awake and picturing a face before her when she'd only ever seen it fleetingly in dreams. It was startlingly familiar and she just knew, as soon as shed looked at it properly, something inside her clicked. Still, she shouldn't be seeing it whilst awake, shouldn't be seeing her, because she's just a girl your imagination had conjured up whilst you'd slept.

This girl stands from her crouched position, still glaring, but in a much softer way than before. Regina's glare from Emma's eyes is entirely disconcerting but at the same time is oddly endearing, she thinks. She's gained her breath back by now and a stunned, wonder filled look flashes through her eyes as she stares at Regina. It takes Regina's breath away because that look is aimed solely at her, it is wonderful because she can feel the love in that look. She can't help but wonder what she did to deserve such a look, but she hopes whatever it was made the girl before her feel just as amazing.

The girl takes a step forward, so she stands at the bottom of the small stairway and she gazes up at Regina. Just as she takes a deep breath as though she is about to start to speak, a panicked and rather pained look flits across her face and her brow furrows in concentration. Now that she is closer, Regina can see the desperate and despairing look deep in her eyes. Her breath catches in her throat when she thinks of what it must have taken to put that look there. The girl looks tired and strained and very, very tense and Regina is almost sure she is trembling slightly. For a second the girls' muscles tense and her jaw strains and Regina is sure she is gritting her teeth so hard that they must be close to breaking point. Just as she is about to speak, and as a bead of sweat travels down from the girls' hairline to her delicate eyebrows, the girl takes a deep breath and visibly relaxes.

For the second time that minute the girl opens her mouth to talk before shutting it as she seems to contemplate what to say. She is snapped out of her reverie by the clock on the wall chiming as it reaches 11pm. The girl huffs out another quick breath, before determinedly taking a lurching step up the stairs of Regina's home. She stops directly in front of her, and she reaches for Regina's forearms. She locks her hands tightly around Regina's elbows, Regina notes that the girls palms are sweaty and extremely hot.

The girl locks eyes with Regina and she sways where she stands but she still doesn't falter. Regina's heart swells at the sight of this poor little girl of whom she has only dreamed before, whom she had never thought would ever possibly exist in reality. Her heart tightens and clenches painfully for the girl in front of her, whom is filled with so much stubborn determination and grit that she couldn't possibly be from any one other than Emma. The thought causes her heart to clench further because how could this possibly have happened? And more importantly why and how is the girl here?

The girls' eyes are still locked on Regina's and there's something in them that compels her not to look away, not to even blink. The girl open her mouth to speak again and this time she manages to choke out words.

"Please, I know this is weird, like extremely weird but it's also really important. I shouldn't be here but I am here, because I have to be here to stop you from making a huge mistake. But I'm already too late for that... You've already made it, oh god this is a huge mess. And it's getting worse, oh crap! Sorry, you don't like my language but that's just me and Mom for you, you weren't supposed to y'no, oh god I'm too late I didn't get here before and I should've."

As she speaks, she panics and as she panics her grip on Regina's arm tightens but Regina never flinches, not even once. There's something in the girls voice that makes Regina want to take her into her arms and comfort the child and never let her go. The girl sounds desperate and like she's on the verge of tears. Regina gently raises her hand and lays it against the girls cheek, her thumb slowly tracing its' way across the apple of the girls' cheek in a soothing pattern. In what she can only hope is a comforting tone Regina speaks.

"What mistake did I make, dear? Are you able to tell me?"

The girl before you nods slightly, her face nuzzling further into Regina's touch, the contact making her heart all but melt into a puddle on the floor. Her trembling has become more apparent but she takes a deep and steadying breath before continuing.

"It's just that we don't have much time, I've got so much to say. But, I guess that's a good place to start, you kissed the wrong person."

Regina takes a soft breath that's a half chuckle. "I know that dear."

"No, you don't, I mean I know you know that but, uh, you were sposed to kiss my mom. This was meant to be the start, well today was, that's why I'm here."

Regina frowned, her brow creasing in thought, she didn't understand. What did she mean? She knew that this child undoubtably came from Emma Swan, she was her double and they had the same childish way of speaking. Surely, that didn't mean, it couldn't mean that... could it? She supposed it did. Oh gods, she thinks, I really must be crazy.

Regina already knew from her dreams that she was on the verge of, if she hadn't already, falling for Emma Swan but it wasn't exactly something she wanted to think about. It was too complicated and too much to comprehend. It was also far too hopeless. She didn't think Emma could ever return her feelings and so she had fooled herself into a mild obsession with Robin Hood. But it hadn't waked, not in either the short term or the long term.

"Does this mean...?" Regina asked the girl before her breathlessly, to which the girl merely laughed. It was a deep and joyful noise and it reminded her wholly of Emma. Something clicked in Regina as she mulled over the girls words, even as she laughed the girl seemed to tremble and sway all the more.

"What did you mean when you said we didn't have much time, dear?" Regina asked carefully, her hand still on the child's cheek. She saw the girl gulp visibly an heard the heavy swallow and she knew the girl was swallowing the newly formed lump in her throat. Still she tried to talk around her tears even though her voice became laden with them.

"Oh, yeah, that. It's just that, uhh, when the kiss didn't happen. You guys stopped being the same and you started like falling apart. And I've started to fade, like really fade, Henry can't see me anymore. Neither can you guys, you could this morning but by lunch you guys acted like I didn't exist."

Regina's breath caught in her throat as tears began to spill down her face. She looked into the eyes of her daughter and she knew, she just knew that she would do whatever she had to, she would do anything to stop that future from happening.

In a low but steady voice she vowed to her daughter "I'm going to make this right."

The girl pulled back slightly and examined Regina's face, she released Regina's arms and though she was swaying so unsteadily on her feet that she looked as though she were about to topple over, she launched herself into Regina. She hugged her as hard as she could, standing on her tiptoes to whisper in her ear.

"You have to do it by midnight, please Mommy, I'm fading and I don't want to. I love you."

Regina blinked and the small but warm presence that had been with her merely moments before had vanished as though into think air. She stared at the place where she had been barely moments before, wondering where she had gone. She didn't even know her name, but then again, Regina supposed if she knew her daughter's name, it would spoil the surprise of the argument they were going to have in the future. She gave it a moment to let everything sink in, her and Emma were meant to be together, she had seen the confirmation of that. She was going to have a daughter, a beautiful daughter who was the perfect mix of the two of them. And everything was supposed to start before midnight.

Midnight.

Regina's head snapped towards the clock on the wall that had struck eleven pm not so long ago and found that she had less than twelve minutes before her happy future finished unwrapping itself. Twelve minutes until her daughter slipped out of existence for all of time. She had twelve minutes to set everything back on course or she was doomed, as was the glimpse of the wonderful and rather overwhelming future she had been promised in the form of her equally wonderful and overwhelming daughter.

And to think she thought her dreams had been enough. With a grin, not her trademark smirk, but a full blown grin (something she was certain Emma would label as shit-eating if she saw it, which she would) she took off in her heels towards the front door. Barely pausing to slam it closed behind her, she raced along Mifflin street before remembering that she was both royalty and a magical being, who did not in fact run.

She willed herself to appear in front of Emma and Henry's beach side cottage, and less than a second later she found herself outside the bleached wood of the front door. She paused for only a second, to check the time (she had eight minutes and forty six seconds left- to be exact) before she knocked on the door.

Barely ten seconds had passed before Emma answered the door in what Regina presumed were her pyjamas. A tank top- of course- and shorts that ended just above the knee. Emma looked surprised when she saw who it was, for a couple of seconds she just stared at Regina, not quite comprehending why she was at the door when it was almost midnight. After a few very long seconds Emma took a step outside and pulled the door so it was almost closed behind her, thankful for the warm weather.

She noticed that something about Regina seemed odd, but it took another second before she noticed what. Regina was wearing a shit eating grin but something in her eyes told Emma she was nervous, extremely so and there were dry tear tracks on her face. Her smirk was really fucking sexy, but that grin, well that was out of this world. Awkwardly she shifted on the balls of her feet, trying to think of what to say.

"Soo, uh what's up?" Emma finally decided, it sounded lame, especially considering it was from a grown up.

Regina decided not to answer immediately, she just stood perfectly still, staring at Emma. Finally, for fear that her time was almost up, the tiny amount of time she had been given in order to put their future back in track, she decided to speak.

"I had a visitor earlier this evening and they told me I had made a terrible mistake. I was told to come here to fix it, dear."

" Who? What mistake? Wait, just how bad are we talking?"

"Nothing that can't be fixed, or at least I hope not, and I'm afraid I can't say." Regina glanced down at her watch to find that she only had two and a half minutes until midnight, just two and a half minutes in which to get this right. Two and a half minutes in which to kiss Emma and get things back on track. She didn't know whether she had to do something else, as well as kissing her, or was it really just that easy, just a kiss. Though a Regina knew that it could never just be a kiss if it was with Emma Swan.

"I don't understand, Regina. What mistake?" Emma's brow was furrowed in the most adorable way due to her confusion. Regina took a deep breath.

One minute and thirteen seconds.

"I kissed the wrong person, but I'm here to put that right." Emma's brow furrowed even further but she found herself swallowing deeply at the jealousy she felt towards that statement.

Fifty two seconds.

"So how can I help? Can't you just not kiss them again, cause that seems like a good plan. I like that plan, I mean kissing the wrong person is- wait who's the right person? Regina?"

Sighing in exasperation Regina leaned forward and gently pecked Emma's lips before leaning back again. Emma looked extremely shocked as a blush spread across her cheeks and a smile spread widely across her face. Regina leaned forward again, she kissed Emma with more fervour but just as chastely even once Emma had begun to respond. Once again she pulled back, the grin still evident on her face as she felt everything click back into place, as she felt the feeling of everything being wrong fade from existence inside of her. Her hand came up of its own accord and she entry cupped Emma's face as she answered her question.

"You." She could hear the echo of her daughter's triumphant laugh as she locked eyes with Emma.


End file.
